Why Video Content Is Important for Your Brand

Every day 100 million internet users watch an online video. Many people watch these on YouTube, which is visited by over a billion people a month and is the second largest search engine on the internet. We know that videos are an undeniably engaging medium, and they continue to attract more attention than text or photos. If this is where your audience is at, this is where your brand wants to thrive.

Don’t know where to start? If you want to jump on the video content train (peer pressure), but you don’t know exactly what kind of videos to make, nor how to use them, let’s figure it out. Here are some examples of different types of video content your brand could consider.

1. Video Content that Documents an Event

Some brands we work with, such as Red Bull or Tough Mudder, produce events that help embody their message, promote their brand, and generate more excitement and loyalty to their product. However, if someone didn’t attend the event, there’s no way for him/her to know what they missed or share any of that excitement about the brand. By creating a video that documents and promotes the event, your brand’s reach will multiply and you can catch your followers up on what they missed out on.

We ask the classic question: If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, did it make a sound? The need to document events to prove they happened has been around for centuries, but it has become central to our culture, especially due to the social media web we live in. (Did you Instagram what you had for lunch yet?) For Tough Mudder’s World’s Toughest Mudder Event, only 1,200 Mudders attended this intimate event, even though it is the culmination of an entire season. The stakes were high; they had 24 hours to take on the most grueling obstacle course to date and prove they were the toughest of them all. We wanted to make sure to deliver a video Tough Mudder could share to display the event’s awesomeness to a larger audience via their social platforms. Thus, you didn’t have to be there to feel the intensity and toughness of the experience, you can watch it unfold before your eyes with the click of a link.

2. Video Content that Strategically Promotes a New Product Line

Another type of video your brand could produce is one that introduces a new collection, new product, or new promotion. One of our clients, Ralph Lauren, was the Official Outfitter of the 2014 US Olympic Team and was looking to highlight their relationship with the team going into the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in order to promote their new collection. We had worked with Team USA before, but never with Ralph Lauren. They came to us because we excel at capturing the beauty of sports and could get the highest quality footage of these athletes performing in the new uniforms. We used our creativity to help guide their concept and keep it athletically authentic, while simultaneously maintaining their legendary fashionable distinction front and center. We created the promotional video (featured above) to launch their new line as well as a bundle of athlete profiles for Ralph Lauren to use across their social platforms and for their in-store displays as they anticipated the excitement the Olympics would bring out in a much larger audience. It was smart to create contemporary content to engage the Olympians and their followers, as it was a social media blitz and only happens once every four years. There were over 90,000 social updates posted by 2014 Sochi Olympians and teams- Team USA being the most socially active of them all, posting 22,598 updates across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

3. Video Content that Tells a Brand Ambassador’s Story

Your brand may want to focus on telling an individual’s story- someone who represents your brand through their personal journey. Beyond celebrity endorsements and sponsored talent, what individuals highlight the same things that are important to your brand? Is it a star athlete who broke through barriers to achieve their goals, an innovative musician, or an unsung hero doing incredible things in their local community? Audiences engage with real stories that tap into some experience or feeling they can relate to. For example, for the launch of their new 2014 Range Rover Sport, Land Rover teamed up with Outside Television to create #THEDRIVEN campaign, featuring stories of select individuals who push themselves beyond the ordinary. Levison Wood’s profile shares his philosophy on life, his vigor for seeking the unknown, and his next task: becoming the first person to walk the 4,175 mile Nile River. His profile also highlights themes that are important to both Land Rover and Outside Magazine: the desire to travel and seek the unknown, bravery and determination to do what hasn’t been done before, and the adventurous spirit to encourage others to do the same.

Stories connect us. They inspire us. What does your brand want to inspire?

4. Video Content that Highlights a Product’s Features

Another genre of video content your brand may consider producing is an informative product video. You may ask: Are product videos worth creating? Considering 90% of online shoppers believe they find product videos helpful when making purchasing decisions and 96% of online shoppers watch videos before making a purchasing decision, we’d say YES. Information is available instantaneously, and our generation takes advantage of it when researching future purchases. Videos increase people’s understanding of your product or service by 74%. If your brand is selling their products online, it is necessary to not just tell your customer about your product’s features. Show them. Educate them.

If you want your brand to be a part of your audience’s life, there’s no better way to meet them socially than through video content. A video is the best way they can imagine their life with your brand in it- you tell that story by painting a picture, a feeling, a message for them. They can hold this story in the palm of their hand via their smartphone. Mobile and tablet users are 3 times as likely to view a video as someone at a laptop or desktop, and videos account for at least 50% of all mobile traffic. Your brand must meet this opportunity. Click - Clack - Engage.

JPI wants to create the most effective and creative video content to help your brand engage. Feel free to contact us here.